Into the Forest: Fairy Tales from Past to Present

In this seminar we will study the evolving history of fairy tales, beginning with the earliest Western version of the Beauty and the Beast story, Apuleius's Amor and Psyche. We will consider several key stories and their variants, including Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, and Bluebeard, focusing in each case on the cultural and social contexts that helped to shape them. Considering early versions of these tales by Giambattista Basile, the brothers Grimm, and Charles Perrault as well as feminist revisions by Angela Carter and A. S. Byatt, our critical focus will include the representation of gender and the problematic conjunction of sex and violence in these stories. In addition to literary narratives we will also study films inspired by fairy tales, including Pan's Labyrinth and Coraline. 3 hrs. sem.